The Kurn Hattin baseball field is a gem that is well hidden in plain sight. It can't be seen from either of the two roads near it and can't even be seen from the parking area. You approach the field from above and don't see it until you come to the edge of the plateau above it. The top of the steep hill on the first base side of the field provides an excellent perch to watch a game from.
The field has no fence and the outfield is huge: 420' to straightaway center, 390' down the left field line, and 376' down the right field line. This field is were home runs go to die. The CRVBL used Kurn Hattin as its 2nd field in 2004, the year the league expanded from 4 to 6 teams. The last few years we have used it only occasional when other fields were unavailable. The infield grass is a little rough but the infield dirt, which was upgraded to surepack in 2004, holds up well and is a great improvement over the mostly sand that was there previously.
Tonight's game is against a team of mostly 20 to 25 year olds. As I come over the crest of the hill I can seem them warming up in the outfield. A lot of young, strong arms on this team.
We are short on players tonight so we've borrowed a couple of players from Saxton's River. They've got plenty to spare. They are the home team tonight so after they take a very crisp infield and we take a our slightly less crisp (but effective) version they take the field. They have Dave Bronw pitching tonight. He was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in 1989 and played a season in short season single A. (I learned after the game that this is his first time pitching in 17 years.) He is throwing hard - probably low to mid eighties at least. I'm the lead off batter tonight so I head to the plate to see what if I can handle his heater.
First pitch: Fast ball, strike one, outside corner at the knees
Second pitch: Fast ball, strike two, outside corner below the knees. I thought it was too low for a strike.
3rd pitch: Fast ball, outside corner at the knees. I swing at it trying to at least foul if off and hit it pretty solidly down the right field line, foul.
4th pitch: Outside. ball one.
5th and 6th pitches: ball 2 & 3. I think one was an attempt at a curve that was above my head. Full count.
7th pitch: I'm looking fastball (Duh!) and get it. It's over the inside 3rd of the plate and I take a mighty swing, and a miss for strike 3. (Photo below)
Our half of the first (and most other innings) went fairly quickly. We got a few walks and some hits and they made and error or two and we scratched out 3 runs over the course of 7 innings. Not bad all things considered.
Their hitters faired better. The first 3 reach on hits and it was quickly 1-0 with runners on first and third. I think I struck out the 4th batter for the first out. The 3rd base coach gave a flurry of signs (which he hadn't done for the previous batter) so I figured he had the runner on first stealing. I did my first and third move which worked perfectly - runner on 3rd was caught about 20 feet down the line in a run down. Benjamin our 3rd baseman has the ball and runs him about 1/2 way down the line then throw to our catcher, Q. Meanwhile I'm getting in position behind Q for the next throw if necessary. Q runs him back a little ways but suddenly things don't look so good. Benjamin is too close and just getting out of the baseline so Q opts to throw to our shortstop who is not yet in position. He's still on his way over from short. Somehow he catches the throw on the run but the baserunner sees things are getting screwed up and makes a break for the plate. Our shortstop tries to throw me the ball on the run but the throw is way wide and the ball goes out of play. Both runners score. The next batter pops up and the following batter flies out. What should have been a one run inning is a three run inning.
We ended up losing 7-3 which wasn't bad but it could have been a lot closer. In addition to the 1st and 3rd screw up I was having throwing my fastball for strikes. It usually tails in some but tonight it was way inside and I couldn't get it over the plate at all. I hit 3 batters (I think they all ended up scoring) and finally decided I had to stay away from my fastball because I felt like I would have to throw a bp fastball to put it over the plate. I can usually make corrections to my mechanics in the middle of a game to fix problems like this but tonight I'm not able to. I'll have to work on this before my next game.
I feel like I like baseball reading this, very cool.
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